What Cleveland celebrities will be there? Drew Carey? Maybe the dude from Foster the People can be the opening act, along with Michael Stanley. Either Michael Symon or Matt Fish should throw out the first burger.

When you get the chance to head down I highly encourage it and I'm not just saying that as an employee. To see what they did to the Higbee building is amazing. Walking on the main gaming floor you can still see the integrity of the original Higbee. My wife and mother in law were down for the Controlled Demo Thursday and couldn't stop talking about the interior and it's transformation. This Casino will hold true to the Horseshoe tradition and guest service will be the priority.

Gilbert and Caesars made sure that this would be a first class facility.

Galley Boys are slop on top of a so-so burger and a bun you coulde get from a Covneninet food mart generic pack. They the Antoine Joubert of burgers; soft, sloppy, oozing grease and cheap sauce and extremely overrated by a biased fan base. Proof that if you throw enough cheap sauce shit on a burger you still can't overcome the lame burger. -JB

I played poker for about 6 hours yesterday and I have to say that it was worse than a home game at times. We had one dealer that was unable to keep the pot correct when we just had people limp in preflop. It was insane. And all of the other dealers struggled mightily too, it wasn't just the one.

We also had our card shuffler break so that sucked. There were lines for everything, and the parking ticket they gave us (for free parking) did not work in the machine so we ended up having to pay $7 to leave.

All things that won't be an issue once the employees become more experienced and the casino dies down a little. But be prepared to have some minor issues if heading there soon.

ajunior148 wrote:The casino looks incredible... they did a great job there.

I played poker for about 6 hours yesterday and I have to say that it was worse than a home game at times. We had one dealer that was unable to keep the pot correct when we just had people limp in preflop. It was insane. And all of the other dealers struggled mightily too, it wasn't just the one.

We also had our card shuffler break so that sucked. There were lines for everything, and the parking ticket they gave us (for free parking) did not work in the machine so we ended up having to pay $7 to leave.

All things that won't be an issue once the employees become more experienced and the casino dies down a little. But be prepared to have some minor issues if heading there soon.

What kind and limits of games are they spreading in the poker room? Anyone? For both limit and no limit if ya know.

FUDU wrote:I'm surprised at the dealer issues, I was of the assumption the training casinos put those people thru was extreme, seeing as how extreme the casino has to be about money and security in general.

The interview process was an embarrassment. They didn't hire people with skills or experience. They hired people with upbeat (read: annoying) personalities.

Never looked at a resume until step 4 or 5 of the interview process.

I had a dealing certification that I had gotten in Vegas a few months before, which I purposely went and got to get a leg up on the other candidates. Didn't even have the chance to let them know I had it.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

FUDU wrote:I'm surprised at the dealer issues, I was of the assumption the training casinos put those people thru was extreme, seeing as how extreme the casino has to be about money and security in general.

I am not one to exaggerate... and those dealers were stunningly bad. There was one dealer that was dealing the cards high up so that you could see if there was paint or not. All had issues with knowing how to swipe people in so that they could earn perks as well. I had to remind dealers about 5 times for my change. But they were all very nice.

I agree with you in that I was surprised at how inexperienced they were. I do not think it'll be an issue in a month though.

As far as the stakes, I only play NL Hold Em and I saw $1/$2 and $3/$6. There max buy in was less than I was used to, but it was ok.

FUDU wrote:I'm surprised at the dealer issues, I was of the assumption the training casinos put those people thru was extreme, seeing as how extreme the casino has to be about money and security in general.

The interview process was an embarrassment. They didn't hire people with skills or experience. They hired people with upbeat (read: annoying) personalities.

Never looked at a resume until step 4 or 5 of the interview process.

I had a dealing certification that I had gotten in Vegas a few months before, which I purposely went and got to get a leg up on the other candidates. Didn't even have the chance to let them know I had it.

Are you saying that you're not an upbeat guy?

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves-----Abe Lincoln

Let me tell you, if any of you douchebag empty headed stuffed suit nanny politicians tries to fuck with my bacon, I’m going after you like a crazed chimpanzee on bath salts. -----Lars

Was there tonight for the first time. No waiting to get in. The table games were plenty packed despite high minimums ($25 for BJ, roulette, and craps, $15 for Let It Ride and stuff like that.) Poker room was pretty filled with a line of people waiting to put their names in. This was around 10 p.m. Parking garage had a "Lot full" sign, so capitalism defeats those whining about the prices there. I parked on Prospect between Flannery's and Tilted Kilt.

Plenty of slot machines were open. I don't know which slot games are supposed to be good and which are losers, so maybe only the loser machines are open. The table games were more packed than the slots. There was a line for B Spot, smaller one for Corky and Lenny's. The buffet looked empty -- of people, not food.

There are problems with aisleways. Some of the table games, there is barely enough space for one person to walk by between the table and the wall or pillars or the fencing around a lounge that is on the second floor (I think). Lots of bottlenecks. Most of the payout machines were out of money, so you have to stand in line at the cashier. The wait there was not long. The line to sign up for a Total Rewards card looked as long as the lines to get in the casino the last couple nights.

I liked the overall atmosphere. Felt very classy. The place felt big. It really is a mix of all different kinds of Clevelanders, all races, all ages. The only color that matters in there is green. (Or black and red if you are playing roulette.)

Here is some parking info. Of course, this is just for the Horseshoe parking garages. You will find different rates depending on which parking garage you choose. I think on a Saturday night you could expect to pay $35 for the Horseshoe parking garage, though you can get your parking validated if you gamble enough. Good luck getting in that garage on Saturday night, though. If it was full on Thursday night, you ain't getting in tomorrow:

What kind and limits of games are they spreading in the poker room? Anyone? For both limit and no limit if ya know

I went yesterday and got in at a $1/$2 NL table. Minimum buy-in was $50 and max was $200. There were 17 $1/$2 tables going when I got there at 3:00pm and around 21 when I left at 5:00. I heard from a dealer that it is currently the busiest poker room going at any casino in the country currently.

$2/$5 was the biggest table I saw on the board. Didn't see any $3/$6

There were Omaha games as well. Didn't really pay attention to the cost for those.

And outta the 10 players at my table, about 3 knew what they were doing. There's easy money to be had right now. I won $60 in less than 2 hours, with losing a big chunk on one hand

motherscratcher wrote:JJ- what benefit could an inexperienced blackjack dealer possibly make other than make the game slower?

Well, for one thing, even the most inexperienced card counter, or just sharp basic strategy player, will have a much longer period of time to calculate the remaining cards in the shoe. Granted, I haven't been there to see if they are using the automatic shufflers where they deal 5 or 6 hands and then put the cards in the machine. That makes it significantly tougher.

People increase their bets based on the count. The higher the plus count means the higher number of face cards in the shoe. Obviously, that's a favorable situation for the player and they will bet more as a result.

Not to mention, the person at third base, the final seat on the far left, probably has a good chance at seeing the dealer's hole card. If a card counting team is working together at a table, the third base seat is arguably the most important because they'll occasionally catch a glimpse of that hole card and know exactly how to play the hand. They can signal to the other players what that card is.

Slow dealers are just asking to be taken advantage of and I imagine that they have been. They'll pay out hands that are pushes. They'll add up the cards wrong. All kinds of things. I assume there are a lot of advantages that gamblers use that I don't even know about.

Mostly, really bad dealers will only be picked off by professionals, but you know they've been at the casino all week.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

Played some BJ this morning. Dealer was fine. Pit boss was horribly slow. Dealer kept calling out for money changing and color ups. This one pit boss either kept ignoring him or didn't hear him or was overwhelmed. There were two different times where we had to wait 3-4 minutes for someone to come over. Dealer is only allowed to do so much. He had to call out what he needed a few times, but apparently wasn't even really allowed to turn around and look for her. Finally a few more supervisors showed up and she was relegated to other duties.

Table mins are still high. They had four craps tables going this morning. One was $10 min, two were $15, one was $25. Wasn't long before the $10 min was $15. All BJ were $15 at the lowest minimum, with more at $25 min than at $15. One thing I noticed, they have only five player spots on the BJ tables. Don't most casinos have six, or maybe seven?

Also, in what is becoming a Dan Gilbert specialty, I couldn't find a drinking fountain.

GodHatesClevelandSport wrote:Table mins are still high. They had four craps tables going this morning. One was $10 min, two were $15, one was $25. Wasn't long before the $10 min was $15. All BJ were $15 at the lowest minimum, with more at $25 min than at $15. One thing I noticed, they have only five player spots on the BJ tables. Don't most casinos have six, or maybe seven?

Yeah, most have six or seven.

Leads me to believe that even when things slow down, there won't be many $5 tables since they aren't getting that extra spot in play.

Do they have any stupid side bets for BJ or no?

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

Make an ante. Get two cards face down to be paired with three community cards. Pair of 6s through 10s out of the five-card hand = push. Jacks or better pay on same paytable as Let It Ride (2x for two pair, 3x for 3 of kind, etc). Round of betting to stay in hand after seeing hole cards and see a first community card, round of betting to see second community card, round of betting to see final card.

Like I said, 6s through 10s is a push. Anything above that pays. Can bet up to triple of ante on 1st, 2nd, 3rd community cards.

So, if you like to chase, it can get expensive. But, if you roll jacks in the hole, at a $5 min table, you'll automatically win $50 ($5 ante, $15 1st comm. card, $15 2nd comm. card, $15 third comm. card). At a $25 table, get queens in the hole and you win at least $275. But, chase a few hands to the end and you'll be dropping $100 a hand.

Same with if you have Ace-6 and the first card is a 6. You're guaranteed to at least push, so you can 3x the third and fourth bet.

skatingtripods wrote:The interview process was an embarrassment. They didn't hire people with skills or experience. They hired people with upbeat (read: annoying) personalities.

This was really surprising. I know a dealer they hired. Not someone I would want in charge of my money in any way.

I see where the casino is coming from... but who goes to a casino just to chat it up with the dealers?

The last time I was at a casino, in Canada, a buddy of mine got quite irate as he swore the craps dealer misread his bet and cut him out of some winnings. She was quite pleasant, but he was pissed the rest of the weekend. Not sure how good a customer experience that is.

Commodore Perry wrote:This was really surprising. I know a dealer they hired. Not someone I would want in charge of my money in any way.

I see where the casino is coming from... but who goes to a casino just to chat it up with the dealers?

Nobody. I've been to almost all of the local casinos and some have cordial dealers and some have brick walls. One of my favorite casinos, Caesars Windsor, ironically, a Caesars property just like Horseshoe, has some of the unfriendliest dealers I've ever encountered. A lot of them are Asian and don't speak good English, so that's probably part of it, but they don't enhance the experience at all.

Now, Seneca Allegany has some great dealers. I was there around Halloween and they had their dealers in costumes and stuff. It was cool. They still did their job well. They also didn't have automatic shufflers, so they had more time to bullshit at the blackjack table while they were shuffling.

Mountaineer's dealers are very hit or miss. Some are great, others are miserable to be there.

I like a little bit of discussion, but I'd rather be talking with the other people at the table. Not distracting the dealer from his/her job.

My theory on what Horseshoe did is that they didn't want people who would provide resistance to their teaching methods. They wanted happy-go-lucky people with no formal education who would just go along with the way they wanted things done. They figured that the personality was the part that couldn't be taught.

A God Damn dead man would understand that if a minor league bus in any city took a real sharp right turn, a Zack McCalister would likely fall out. - Lead Pipe

I doubt it. Some of it has to be because the sheer number of applicants. I hate to be a judgemental ass but walking into that casino has me agree'n with the "type" of person they were looking for... I never heard anything.

If they looked at my res they would have seen I had a job knee deep in dealing with irrational assholes whose asses you have to kiss on a daily basis (project management construction).

"When a man with money meets a man with experience, the man with experience leaves with money and the man with money leaves with experience."

Orenthal wrote:I doubt it. Some of it has to be because the sheer number of applicants. I hate to be a judgemental ass but walking into that casino has me agree'n with the "type" of person they were looking for... I never heard anything.

If they looked at my res they would have seen I had a job knee deep in dealing with irrational assholes whose asses you have to kiss on a daily basis (project management construction).

A sneaky good tip I recently heard about getting your resume to the top of the stack when HR is using a keyword search is to copy the job advert. and paste into a text box on your resume, make the font color white and shrink it down real small.